1. Field Of the Invention:
The invention relates to an improved folding scaffold.
2. Related Art:
Scaffold devices are used in various forms to support workers and materials during the construction and remodeling of buildings specifically and for other purposes generally. The main use of such devices being depicted for use on construction sites to support workers and materials at various locations about a structure. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,619,390, 4,534,447, and 4,609,071. Some scaffolds are collapsible for transportation and storage. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,534,447 and 4,609,071. Typically, these devices comprise a pair of support ladders attached by tubular frames hinged in some fashion equi-distant from the support ladders. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,523,447 and 4,609,071. Support planks or boards extend across the corresponding rungs of the ladders and are used to rigidly maintain the ladders in a parallel relation to each other and to support the workers and materials. See the board retaining mechanisms in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,619,390 and 4,534,447. In addition, the hinged tubular frames are sometimes held in the open or fully extended position with U-shaped channel members as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,447 or movement of the tubular frames is restricted with the use of a window formed in a sleeve on one end of a frame and a locking projection mounted in the other frame end as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,609,071.
The folding devices collapse to a thickness of four tubular diameters and must be transported by rolling on casters as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,447 or hand carried as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,609,071. Hand carrying creates an awkward situation to a workmen in attempting to carry a folded scaffold having no convenient grip or handle and having no method of preventing the scaffold from unfolding. The boards or planks must be carried separately from the scaffold requiring either more than one trip or the efforts of more than one person. In addition, the thickness of the device in the folded position requires more storage or transport space than one that could be folded to a three diameter thickness.